The introduction of increasingly sophisticated telecommunication systems seems to offer opportunities to respond to some of the key problems around structural and spatial inequalities in access to health care. There is evidence which suggests that serious mental health problems are common among prisoners and psychiatric comorbidity is the norm. Many prisoners have complex mental health needs, but more often than not these remain unaddressed. Telepsychiatry is one strategy to improve the accessibility and quality of mental health care in the prison setting. This paper firstly reviews the current prison health care system and then describes a research study which is focused on the development and evaluation of a telepsychiatry service for prisoners. This study has investigated what is lost or gained in a psychiatric assessment when it is conducted via telepsychiatry. The researcher compared the inter-rater reliability between two raters interviewing 80 participants in an observer/interviewer split configuration in telepsychiatry and same room settings. The measure used was the Comprehensive Psychopathology Rating Scale. Prisoners and prison staff also took part in semi-structured interviews which focused on their satisfaction and acceptability of the telepsychiatry service. A cost comparison of the telepsychiatry service with the existing visiting service was conducted. This paper outlines the study design and focuses on the potential impact that telepsychiatry may have upon the practice setting.
Prisoners are not typical of the general population with regard to their health needs, as they have a disproportionately high incidence of mental health problems and drug misuse. Health-care delivery in prison faces a significant number of challenges not experienced by other health-care organizations. Telepsychiatry is one strategy to improve the accessibility and quality of mental health-care in the prison setting. Despite some initial challenges, a telepsychiatry service was successfully established between a medium-secure unit in Fareham, Hampshire, and a category B training prison on the Isle of Wight. A low-cost, PC-based videoconferencing system was used, connected by ISDN lines at 128 kbit/s. A valuable lesson that was learnt was the importance of having the support of key individuals in a prison setting.
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